


Harry Potter and the Order of Operations

by erroneouslygrey



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Ginny Weasley, Bisexual Ron Weasley, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gay Draco Malfoy, Gay Harry Potter, Gen, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Minor Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Minor Neville Longbottom/Pansy Parkinson, Minor Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas, Pansexual Luna Lovegood, Party Games, Truth or Dare, Tutoring, sfw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-08 02:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13448475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erroneouslygrey/pseuds/erroneouslygrey
Summary: How the Order of Operations brings together my two fave boys.





	1. Pa(friend)theses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unicornsandphoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unicornsandphoenix/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Calculus](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/460460) by hellaroyale.tumblr.com. 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco is off in space thinking about how boring the Maths unit of Muggle-Studies is, when he gets paired with Harry for a brief assignment covering PEMDAS. Draco is excited to teach the concept, but worried Harry will be against learning from him. A careful friendship is formed, and they agree to tutor each other.

“Yesterday, we covered the Muggle equivalent of Potions when we talked about Science and Chemistry. As I’ve said before, our goal is not to make you masters of the Muggle school subjects, but rather open your eyes to the perspectives Muggles might have developed from some of the basics covered in all of these subjects. Today, we will be talking about Maths, of which you should all know basics from your pre-Hogwarts schooling, yes?”

At the nods of agreement from around the classroom, she continued, “So, you all know about PEMDAS, then, yes?” Again seeing nods of agreement, she continued, “Then today we will be covering the general topic of Algebra, which requires knowledge of PEMDAS. We will be doing some problems in pairs, which will be drawn from this bowl at the front of the room, as always.”

As Professor Wilmington began to talk more in detail about the topic of Algebra, Draco’s mind began to wander. Before Hogwarts, Draco’s schooling came in the form of a tutor, which allowed him to move quickly through his subjects. There wasn’t much for a child to do at the Manor, so he spent most of his time reading, studying, and teaching himself how to use a broom. Due to all this, today’s lesson was going to be another boring one for Draco; he continued his own personal studying once at Hogwarts, and had mastered Pre-Calculus on his own already. He hoped he would get paired with someone who didn’t know how to do Algebra so he could help explain it – that would at least make it a bit more interesting.

Lost in thought over his past studies, Draco was a bit shocked as people began to move around. Professor Wilmington was already past the explanation portion of class and onto choosing partners! He quickly drew himself up and assessed the room, looking to the board for the assignment.

 _“Easy,”_ he thought to himself, _“just 5 problems to work through in 45 minutes. I figured Wilmington had pretty low expectations for how quickly people would grasp the concept, but this seems a bit excessive, even then.”_

“Ron, your partner will be Neville for this assignment.” Professor Wilmington announced as the two boys exchanged doomed looks with each other – neither had absorbed an ounce of information on the subject.

Ignoring this exchange, Wilmington continued to announce the pairings, arriving soon at the pairing of, “Harry, you’ll be working with Draco this time.”

 _“Oh no. Oh, no no no, this will not do. I know I hoped for someone who didn’t understand it, but this is Potter, there is no way he’ll actually let me teach him; he hates me.”_ Draco tried to keep a neutral expression on his face, despite his racing thoughts. 

Tilting his head, he invited Potter over, as there was an empty seat by him already. Potter’s expression was hard to read, as he looked far too tired for anything else to be visible on his face. Slowly, he stood up, and joined Draco with a sigh.

Of course, Draco took the sigh personally and, trying desperately to keep his voice sounding a friendly sort of sarcastic, addressed the issue with a, “Ah, working with me will be such a chore for you won’t it, Potter?”

Realizing it still sounded negative, Draco tried taking on a small smile to the end. Although stilted, it seemed to help get the message across, because the next second, Potter’s face suddenly didn’t look as tired — his eyes looked a little brighter and the corners of his mouth lifted ever-so slightly as he said, “It really will. Sworn enemies and all that, you know.”

“Wonderful,” Draco drawled, “let’s get on with it then. Where are you at with the material? I’m actually quite good at Maths, especially Algebra, so it’s all pretty straightforward for me. If you’re confused on anything, I’d be glad to help you out. Honestly, it’d make this far more enjoyable of a class for me if I got to help other people out with it. I spent too much time in my childhood studying, and now I’m too far ahead of the class to enjoy it on my own. And now I’m oversharing, oh Merlin help me.”

Once the words had started coming out, he just couldn’t quite stop them. He was horribly embarrassed now and he kept his head ducked as he felt a bit of heat rise to his cheeks.

“I don’t mind the oversharing bit,” Harry chuckled, “as it gives some perspective and gives me a bit of hope that I won’t fail today’s assignment. I’ve always been miserable at maths. When Wilmington asked if we knew PEMDAS, I nodded because I recognized it, but I’ll be honest, I don’t understand it all.”

“Really? That’s wonderful!” Draco exclaimed, before realizing the oddness of that response and quickly added on, “Not to say that it’s wonderful you’re behind, just that it’s wonderful you want to learn and that today will at least be interesting for me.”

“No jibe at how slow I am? Wow, I’m a bit disappointed, honestly. I like getting along with you, but I’ll be honest, this weird polite thing is kinda uncomfortable sometimes. I miss our back and forth a bit, if I’m being straight up about it.” Harry confessed, adding under his breath, _“not that I can be straight about anything.”_

Just like the, the carefulness they had created around each other came down, and a sarcastic and tentative friendship seeming to be what was left behind. Choosing to ignore the indecipherable mutterings from Potter, Draco responded with, “Wow, Famous Potter: The Boy Who Failed Maths. Is that better, Oh Chosen One?”

“Much,” Harry approved, looking quite pleased.

“Does the Golden Boy at least know what the letters in PEMDAS stand for, or are you too thick to have grasped even that yet?”

“I have a feeling that even if I did know, you’re too much a swot to pass up the opportunity to explain it to someone as thick as you think I am, so go on then.”

“P is for parentheses, so first you address the maths within the parentheses before the maths outside the parentheses. Then you solve any exponents, for the E. Next, you do all multiplication and division, the M and the D, and then finally, you add and subtract anything left, the A and the S. It’s like this…” Draco explained, walking Harry through the problems on the assignment until he understood, and then creating more problems, so Harry could have more practice with it.

Eventually, the bell rang, and Harry was able to leave understanding and even enjoying the basic Algebra he had learned, while Draco was able to leave happy that he hadn’t had another waste of a class period.

As they headed out the door, Harry hedged, “So, um, that really helped me a lot, thanks for all of that. Do you maybe want to study together sometime? You don’t have to or anything if you don’t want, I just thought it might be nice, it kinda seemed like we were starting to be friends but maybe I read it wrong and made it awkward, Merlin’s beard, I hope I didn’t, but er, if you wanted to–”

“Potter, stop rambling, you disaster of a wizard,” Draco broke in, “Yes, we’re friends now, and of course we can study together. I rather enjoyed it actually. Also, I’m atrocious at DADA, and you’re rather good at it, so maybe you could help with that during some of our study sessions.” 

“Brilliant!” Harry stood there, beaming for a bit, before startling and dashing away as he called out, “I forgot, I’ve Care of Magical Creatures next, I’m late! See you at lunch!”

Draco waved to Harry, then made his way to Arithmancy, smiling to himself the whole way there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the meme of all the Harry Potter books with Math, and it is what inspired this mess. This is my first fanfic that I've written with a full plan for completion thought out and with the intention of actually putting it out there for anyone to see. I haven't edited anything yet so it'll probs be really rough, and like I said, I'm a newbie, so sorry if this sucks or ends up super cliche. I'm just out here trying to entertain myself (and maybe some other people too) with some some fluffy Drarry. :)


	2. EX-ponents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the now-ex-rivals talk about their exes, they find they have quite a bit in common.
> 
> or
> 
> Draco gets offended when Ginny is sitting by Harry at lunch, because he thinks this makes him the third wheel. Good talks between Draco and Harry regarding their sexualities ensue.

Harry drummed his fingers on the table as he tried to wait patiently for Malfoy to arrive. Unfortunately, he had only been doing this for about 30 seconds when he began to lose patience. Waiting never had been easy for him, but this was way harder than usual. It wasn’t his fault he was excited to spend time with Malfoy! They had just determined they were friends before they had to go their own ways, and Harry wanted to get to know Malfoy the Friend, as he had only ever known Malfoy the Enemy before. Just as soon as Harry decided to get up to go find Malfoy, someone plopped down next to him.

“Hi, Harry!” Ginny chirped. “Did you have a good day? Mine’s been pretty boring, as I haven’t seen Luna all day. Have you seen her?”

“Hey, Gin! I haven’t seen Luna yet today, sorry,” he shook his head. “I’ve made a new friend today though, and you’ll never guess who it is.”

“Really, Harry? The only people you aren’t really friends with are the Slytherins, so that makes it a pretty easy guess.”

“There’s still a good number of them! I’ll give you three guesses.”

“Hmmm,” Ginny said, pretending to think it over, “GASP...could it be...Malfoy?”

“Did you really just say the word ‘gasp’ out loud, Gin? And how did you guess so quick? I thought he’d be your last guess!”

“Oh, honestly Harold, sometimes the best friends are the ones you can argue with constantly. We’re proof of that, and ever since we stopped going out, I’ve noticed that the way you and Malfoy fight is similar to how we would in some aspects of it. I’ve been waiting for you two to get your heads on straight and realize your little rivalry is stupid.”

“That...makes a lot of sense, actually,” Harry said, realization washing over him. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice before.”

“Believe me, I can,” Ginny snorted, “you’re so thick sometimes, honestly.

Harry tried to glare at her, but ended up bursting out laughing after just a few moments. They both calmed down a bit later, only to make eye contact with each other and crack up all over again, gasping for air. Somewhere in the midst of their laughing fit, they both failed to notice Malfoy show up until he loudly cleared his throat.

The pair of hooligans calmed themselves down, apologizing to Malfoy as best as they could through their last few spells of giggles.

“Potter,” he drawled, “I was under the impression we would be sitting together at lunch. I was unaware it would be in the form of me acting as your third wheel though, so excuse me if I’ll pass up the chance to join you and the Weaslette on your little ‘date’.”

“Oh hush, Malfoy, I was just keeping Harry company while he waited for you. He looked like he was about ready to sprint out of the room to find you if he was left to his own devices for any longer, and I was waiting to spot Luna anyway. No need to be foul about it. We’re all friends here, after all, right? A friend of Harry’s is a friend of mine, whether or not you return the sentiment.” Ginny said this all with such fierceness that it seemed as though anything nearby her could explode at a moment’s notice if she willed it to.

“Er, yeah, Malfoy, I don’t actually know how she knew that,” Harry gave Ginny a questioning side-eye, “but I really was about 3 seconds from dashing off to find you. I’ve never been good at being patient, and I was really looking forward to eating together.”

“Oh. Well, I apologize, Ginevra. That was rather presumptuous and rude of me. I suppose a friend of Potter’s is a friend of mine, as well,” Draco’s face was a bit flushed as he held his hand out towards Ginny, who thankfully shook it, a small smile on her face.

“Call me Ginny, Draco. We’re friends now, after all,” she smirked, before turning to head over towards Luna, who had just come in through the doors. “See you around, then. I’ve found Luna, and my head could use some nonsense of a much more enjoyable variety than the type that comes from the two of you.”

At this, Draco snorted, then immediately slapped his hands over his mouth, horrified that such a sound had come out of him in public. His face was so red that Harry thought he looked like some sort of Weasley from an alternate dimension – pale hair instead of a pale face, and a red face instead of red hair. This thought sent Harry into a whole new set of giggles, for which Draco glared at him intensely.

“You–” Harry gasped for air, “you look like–” he snorted, “like if you switched the color of your hair and face with Ron’s!”

Upon finally being able to get the words out, Harry dissolved into yet another round of laughter so strong that there were tears starting to leak out of his eyes. Draco remained quite unimpressed with this, and continued to glare until Harry had calmed down a bit more.

“I resent the implication that the Weasel and I have anything in common at all, Potter.”

Harry rolled his eyes at this, “Sure, Malfoy. You do realize you’ll have to at least tolerate each other if we’re to be friends, though. I mean, your friends and I will have to find a way to tolerate each other or even become friends, too.”

“Ugh. I suppose you’re right this once. I do resent that I’ll have to spend time around the Weasel, though.”

“Mhmm, okay then, Malfoy.”

At this, Draco simply rolled his eyes and began filling his plate with food. Soon enough, Harry followed suit, and the began eating in awkward silence for a bit until–

“So, Potter. It’s unclear to me. Are you and the Weasl– I mean,  _ Ginny _ dating still, or are you not? I feel like, as your friend now, this is something I should be aware of.”

“Gin and I really didn’t work as a couple at all. Not the right type for each other, if you know what I mean. Luckily, there’s nothing bad between us. We just realized we make way better friends than we do anything else,” Harry shrugged, and continued eating, unbothered.

“Oh, well that’s good then, I suppose,” Draco commented.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Harry’s head and came out of his mouth before he could filter it. “Are you and Parkinson still together then? You’ve been together since what, 4th year? Right?”

Draco looked perplexed, and also a bit revolted at this. “Pansy? You thought Pansy and I were dating? Since 4th year? Why in the world would you think that? Pansy Parkinson and I have never dated, and never will, I can assure you.”

“You went to the Yule Ball together, I just thought…” Harry rubbed his neck awkwardly.

“Well, you were quite wrong. If you must know, I would have much rather taken Blaise to that ball, but I wasn’t out of the closet at that point.”

“Out of the closet? You mean you’re…”

“Gay, yes. I’ve been out for a while now, I don’t try to hide it. I’m actually surprised you didn’t know. It was quite the news around Slytherin, and with the way things spread in this school, i just figured everyone knew.” Suddenly, Draco narrowed his eyes, “You don’t have an... _ issue _ with my being gay, do you? Because I would much rather end this friendship here and now if that’s the case.”

“No, no! I don’t have an issue at all, I just didn’t know at all. Also, it would be hypocritical of me to have an issue with it, now wouldn’t it? I mean, I did just tell you that was the reason Gin and I broke up, us not being attracted to the right types for us to work together.”

“ _ That _ ’s what you meant? I just thought you meant your personalities didn’t go well together or something. Didn’t you date Cho Chang, too, though? How didn’t you know then?”

“I never had the chance to figure it out on my own before then. I didn’t know that being attracted to the same gender was even possible until Dean and Seamus came out. It explains a lot of why it was so miserable when Cho and I tried to date. It wasn’t as miserable with Gin, because at least she and I were already friends. Gin is actually the one who helped me figure it out. She goes either way, I suppose, but she really had a thing for Luna that she was only just realizing. They work quite nicely as a couple together. Anyway, while she worked out her feelings, she talked to me about it honestly, and it helped me realize a lot about myself along the way.”

“Oh, wow. That’s nice that you had her to help you figure it out. I can’t imagine not knowing. I’ve known my whole life. Surprisingly, my parents have always been supportive. As long as they have an heir, they don’t care, and I guess there are potions that can help with that, luckily.”

“That’s good! I would have guessed it would be against traditional pureblood beliefs to support it. I’m glad I was wrong for your sake. Have you ever dated anyone then? I wouldn’t know, since I was under the assumption you were straight and dating Parkinson.”

“Well, I did say I would rather take Blaise to that ball… it seems Blaise also would have rather gone with me. We were a bit of an item later on during 5th year, but it all just felt weird. Messed up our friendship, not majorly, just made it awkward for a while. We’re pretty much back to normal now though. He’s the only one I’ve dated though.”

Draco and Harry continued to exchange comments about obvious signs they were gay, and how people (or, in Harry’s case, how he himself) looked over these signs for so long. In just one meal, they had found out a world of information about each other. Their fast friendship left them both irked with themselves for holding onto their childish rivalry for so long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rushed through this really fast. It's mostly just dialogue. Maybe I'll go back someday and edit it and add in more details around the dialogue, maybe I won't. Here's what I have for now. The ending isn't super great, but hopefully the next chapter will be!


	3. 8th Year Parties - Where the Fun is Multiplied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 8th year (+Linny) party, where suddenly everyone is actually friends and everything is fun. Typical but tame party games take place, causing both Draco and Harry to become increasingly flustered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge shout-out to my bestie @unicornsandphoenix for giving me the motivation to work on this some more. I'd hoped I'd be able to get this written within a week after you had commented, but I had a lot of personal and family issues come up that needed some attention first. So, here we are, quite a bit later, but with Chapter 3 completed! Hope you like it! <3 Also, I've officially decided to gift this fic to you, since you hyped it up so much to me and have just been the absolute best bestie ever, ilysmm<3 <3 Idk if that's exactly how gifting is supposed to work, but oh well, that's what I'm doing.

Fridays were both Harry’s favorite and his least favorite days of the week. He loved that they were the start of the weekend, but he also hated how slowly the school day moved on Fridays. He could practically taste the freedom, but he was still trapped doing schoolwork for a few more hours. Even now, as he worked with Draco on some more Maths, Harry was full to the brim with restless energy. Probably it had to do with the fact that he was even more excited for the weekend than usual, since he had a party to look forward to later that night.

Setting down his pencil, Harry decided to give up on his work for a bit in favor of bothering Draco.

“You’re going to go to the party tonight, right?”

“I’d really rather not, but knowing you, I’m likely to get dragged along regardless of that. So, yes, I will be there. You need to focus, though, I only have a half an hour before my next class, and you haven’t finished your practice problems yet!”

Harry groaned. He did NOT want to think about Maths, he wanted to just hang out.

“Dracoooo…”

Draco arched his eyebrow in response, then after a beat said, “Absolutely not, don’t even try that with me. You need to finish these problems so we can be sure that you’re understanding the concepts in class. We can chat when you’re done.”

“Ugh, you’re the worst, Malfoy. Whatever, I’ll do the stupid problems,” Harry pouted.

When 8 o’clock came around, Harry was impatiently sitting in the 8th year common room, tapping his foot and being extremely unhelpful as several other 8th years ran around, finishing the setting up for the party. He came down a half an hour early with the intention of being helpful, but failed miserably as he found himself caught up in worries regarding whether or not Draco would actually show up.

8th years, as well as a few 7th years, began to trickle in around 8:20. When Draco emerged from his room at 8:30 on the dot, Harry made a beeline over his direction.

“Malfoy! I was worried you wouldn’t show up. I know you had said you would, but you also said you didn’t want to, and I was just worried because it wouldn’t have been any fun without you here.”

Draco smirked. “Hmm, I do make rather good company, don’t I?”

“Ugh, whatever, Malfoy, let’s get a seat before everyone gets here and takes all the good ones,” Harry said, dragging Draco along on his hunt for the perfect seat.

Eventually, Harry decided that one of the medium-sized couches was a good spot, and he and Draco settled in, chatting a bit as everyone made their way in. Soon enough, people began to make their way over to the circle of couches so that some games could begin. Ginny made eye contact with Harry, a weird glint in her eye as she waved and made her way towards the couch.

“Hello Harold, Draco,” Ginny said, nodding at them. “Is this seat taken?” she said, pointing towards the space next to Draco.

“Er, hello, uh...Ginny,” Draco said. “Not yet, you can sit there if you want.”

“Perfect!” Ginny said, clapping her hands together. “Luna, babe, I’ve found us a seat!”

“Um, Gin…” Harry said, seeming a bit unsure of himself, “you, er. You know this couch only has room for one more person, right?”

The weird glint was back in her eyes as Ginny said, “We’ll make it work. I want to sit with my girlfriend. If she has to sit on my lap, I’m perfectly fine with that, but honestly, I think we can squeeze. You two are both twigs, and so is she, so it really should be alright. Plus, Harold dearest, there are a lot of people here, and we want as many people to fit on the couches as we can, don’t we?”

“Er, yeah. Yeah, that works or whatever I guess,” Harry muttered, flushing a bit as he realized he was going to have to sit extremely close to Draco.

Meanwhile, Draco was spacing off, not really paying attention to the people on either side of him as he took in Luna’s brand-new set of earrings. In his defense, they were quite distracting earrings, indeed. It seemed as though they had at one time been standard, humongous hoop earrings. Now that Luna had them, though, they were…quite a bit more than just that. Somehow or another, Luna had attached an assortment of orchids, sunflowers, and some sort of small white flower that Draco couldn’t remember the name of  to the hoops and had charmed a few clovers to float in the middle of each earring, zooming around in some sort of pattern which seemed to be different on each ear. It was quite a lot to take in, considering that the earrings were large enough that they nearly brushed Luna’s shoulders.

Having heard Ginny earlier, and now noticing Draco’s staring, Luna made her way over to the group to give Harry and Draco some hugs.

“Hello, friends! What do you think of my new earrings? I noticed you looking at them, Draco.”

Harry’s eyes got almost as huge as Luna’s earrings as he tried to take in everything going on in them.

“Hello Luna,” Draco said. “I think those are remarkable! I’d say some of your best charmwork on earrings so far. I was wondering what sort of pattern the clovers are supposed to be making though.”

Luna giggled and said, “Thank you! I’ve been working on them for a while now. My left earring is the sign for Aquarius, since I’m an Aquarius, and the right earring is the sign for Leo, for Ginny!”

Ginny immediately flushed, throwing her head back into the couch and whispering, “Every time she explains it, I die from cuteness, I swear to Merlin.” Then louder, she said, “Lu, babe, c’mere, sit by me.”

Briefly, Luna perched on Ginny’s lap and placed a light kiss on her forehead, making Ginny’s already-red face turn even more red. With the kiss planted, Luna was ready to have her own seat — she always felt bad sitting on anyone’s lap for very long — so she wiggled off Ginny’s lap and squeezed in-between Ginny and Draco. As everyone readjusted to make room for her, Draco suddenly became aware of the issue that he missed Harry voicing earlier — they were squished impossibly close together, which was just  _ annoying _ , okay? It wasn’t that big of a deal, it’s just that he would  _ rather  _ not have to spend his evening squashed against someone who he had only  _ just recently  _ become close with. It wasn’t a problem being that close to Luna just because they had been close friends for a lot  _ longer _ ,  **_alright_ ** _? _ This was going to be a long night, Draco just knew it.

 

‒--------‒

 

An hour later, Draco found himself somehow being forced to play Truth or Dare with the group. Quite a lot had happened so far, people had been dared to sneak into the kitchens for snacks, sing to the group, allow someone to cast a silly little jinx on them, as well as a few other things, like an ongoing dare for Hermione where she wasn’t allowed to speak until everyone had had at least one turn being asked a truth or being a dare. A lot of the truths revolved around asking who people fancied, or which teachers they thought were the most/least attractive. It was all pretty standard stuff, but Draco wasn’t a fan of these kind of games. First of all, they were embarrassing, and second, it was always really difficult for him to think of creative things to give to others as a truth or dare. It was frustrating for him, and secretly, he was hoping that people would get bored of the game before it reached him.

Unfortunately, he had no such luck. Ginny finished her turn, clarifying that she was bisexual, not lesbian. She had been asked a boring question about her sexuality by another (insensitive) 7th year whose name Draco didn’t know. Smirking at Draco, Ginny asked, “So, Draco, truth or dare?”

Most dares up until now had been pretty tame. No one had been dared to kiss anyone else, or anything more wild than that. The truths had been more embarrassing (or boring/frustrating in the case of Ginny), and Draco was desperately just trying to avoid embarrassment and/or anger. So, he went with what he thought was the safer answer. “Dare, Ginevra.”

Ginny’s whole face lit up with glee, and Draco instantly regretted his choice. It was too late, though.

“Alright then, pretty boy, I dare you to either hold Harry’s hand for the rest of the game, or to kiss Lavender on the mouth,” Ginny announced smugly, knowing full-well that Draco was gay and had no interest in kissing any girl.

Draco’s whole face burst into flames as he tentatively reached for Harry’s hand. Lavender pretended to act offended by this, making Draco think she was actually offended, and he stumbled through an apology.

“Ah, er, nothing personal, Lavender, I just, you know, might barf if I had to kiss you...er! Not because it’s you specifically! Just because, you know, you’re a,” he whispered, “girl…” he switched back to his regular volume and said, “and I’m  _ extremely _ gay and, Merlin, ugh, can we just move on?”

The whole room just started cackling at this, except for Harry, who had seemed to grown quiet and tense while holding Draco’s hand. Draco nudged him with his shoulder and offered him a smile, which helped Harry relax a little bit. Once the room had quieted back down a bit, Draco called across the circle to Ron, “Hey Weasley, truth or dare?”

“Dare, Malfoy! I’m not afraid!” Ron immediately replied.

“Oh, er, I’m actually terrible at coming up with these, give me a second.” Then, whispering, he begged for helped from Harry or Luna as he frantically tried to brainstorm a good dare.

Harry leaned in as close as he could to Draco’s ear, which caused both of their hearts to race, though neither could figure out why. He whispered a suggestion into Draco’s ear, something about flirting with a portrait, which Draco took and ran with.

“Okay then Weasel, I dare you to flirt with Sir Cadogan’s portrait for a full minute, blowing him a kiss as you leave. I’m nominating Seamus to go with you and report that you’ve properly completed the dare.”

“This is bloody dumb, but alright. At least his portrait is close to our common room,” Ron muttered, standing up.

“Right on, mate, you all know that I won’t let anyone get away with chickening out of a dare. C’mon then, Ron, we don’t got time to waste, you know!” Seamus said, making his way towards the door as well.

Soon enough, the two reappeared, with Ron looking a bit irritated and with Seamus cackling. In between peals of laughter, Seamus told everyone that Ron had used the most cliche pick-up lines ever, and that Sir Cadogan had been entirely confused until Ron blew the kiss. At that point, he tried shouting for Ron to come back, but Ron had not even turned around. Seamus had taken the opportunity to tell Sir Cadogan that Ron was embarrassed by how strong his feelings for Sir Cadogan were, and that Seamus would do his best to get Ron to talk about it with the knight again.

“Hmph, whatever. Good dare, I guess, Ferrett. Anyway, truth or dare, Harry?”

“Oh, er, dare I guess?”

“Hmm, alright. I dare you to kiss Malfoy then.”

“Ron!!!!!” Harry hissed. “I thought we all agreed were not doing those kinds of dares tonight!”

“Oh relax, Harry, it can be on the cheek or something, I’m not saying you have to neck or anything.”

With his face burning red, Harry turned towards Draco, who was blushing furiously and glaring at Ron. Draco glanced at Harry, who whispered, “you look like a reverse Ron again, Malfoy. Light hair and a red face instead of light skin and red hair.”

Draco’s face turned darker red and he whispered in an irritated tone, “I told you to stop saying that, Potter.”

“Sorry, now that I’ve noticed it, I can’t just unnotice it,” he whispered, leaning in towards Draco’s cheek.

Harry took a deep breath, while Draco froze and seemed to forget to breathe at all. Then Harry was leaning the rest of the way in, lips gently forming a kiss on Draco’s cheek.

Too soon and also not soon enough, Harry was pulling away from Draco, giving their still-joined hands a soft squeeze.

There were enough people that they only played long enough for everyone to have one turn before people got bored and broke into smaller groups to play card games and chat. Draco wasn’t really sure what happened for the rest of the game, though. All he could think about was the fact that Potter had kissed his cheek, and that they were still holding hands and sitting impossibly close to each other, and that Potter had bloody squeezed his hand, and that it didn’t make sense why Draco couldn’t breathe because they could only  _ barely _ even stand being around each other and———

“MALFOY!”

Draco jumped, suddenly noticing that people had moved to different spots around the room.

“Uh, sorry, I was spacing out I guess,” Draco mumbled.

“Yeah, I could tell. I had to call your name a few times before you noticed,” Harry said, smiling, and nudging Draco with his shoulder. “The game is over, and people were splitting up to play some card games. Did you want to play anything? We could just hang out, too, if you want.”

Draco panicked, glancing down and noticing that he and Harry’s hands were still joined together, and said, “I have to...um. I don’t...I think I’m going to turn in early. I’m not really feeling up for any more socializing today. I have a lot on my mind right now I guess.”

Harry’s face fell, though he tried to hide it. “Oh, that’s alright, I guess. Whatever you need. If you need someone to talk to about it...I mean, I’ll always be here to listen if you need it.” he gave Draco’s hand another tiny squeeze. “You’ve just got to let me know, alright?”

Draco nodded and thanked Harry, before they dropped each others’ hands and stood up.

“I had a good night, Harry, there’s just only so much social time that I can handle at once, and today’s one of those ones where the amount that I can handle is a lot less. I’ll see you tomorrow night after the Hogsmeade day to work on DADA and Muggle Studies, though, right?”

“Right, we’ll meet in the library right after dinner,” Harry confirmed, smile returning to his face. “Have a good rest of your night Draco. I’m really glad you hung out for what you could manage here. See you tomorrow.”

Draco smiled and awkwardly waved as he made his way back to his room. Harry just stood there for awhile, thinking about how weird it felt to not have Draco’s hand in his anymore, and getting confused about why those thought made his face burn. Eventually he shook himself out of and joined in some of the other games that were happening around him, but the whole night, in the back of his mind, all he could think about was Draco Malfoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter was really fun to write, but it also took a really long time, since it's like twice as long as chapters one and two. Not sure if that's a good or a bad or even a relevant thing, but it is some sort of a thing. I'm very proud of myself for getting this written, though I also think it could use some workshopping, as could my first two chapters. My priority is getting it all written before I make those adjustments though, because I'm not sure if the changes I make now would match up with what I end up writing later, ya feel? I'll include the date of editing in the notes if I ever go back and change any aspects of past chapters just in case anyone is curious about that kind of stuff :)


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